Sunday, November 22, 2015

Turkish Jets Bomb PKK Targets In Kurdistan

We told you all along there was a bigger agenda behind the war in Syria than the western media was ever going to report.

As Russia's pounding of the Sunni Muslim extremists Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria intensifies, a new front is being opened up in what is possibly a bid to surround Assad and his Russian allies close to Syria's Mediterranean coast. Turkey and the Kurds have long been at loggerheads of course, but it is the Kurdish irregulars who have been the most effective force in opposing IS on the ground. And ISIS pose as big a potential threat to Turkey as they do to Syria, unless as his critics claim, Turkey's President Edrogan is a follow traveller of IS and covertly supports the recreation of the Islamic Caliphate.

We are learning from the news feeds that Turkish warplanes launched airstrikes in Northern Iraq on Friday night, destroying shelters and supply points of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê - PKK).

Confirming the reports, a military statement on Saturday said the overnight airstrikes targeted the Qandil mountains where the PKK's leadership is based.

The military did not give further details but the state-run Anatolia news agency said the operation involved 22 fighter jets and that 23 targets were hit.

Turkey has been striking PKK targets in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey since July.

A two-year cease-fire and peace talks between the Turkish state and the PKK lie in tatters after the Turkish government stepped up violent repression against the Kurds, an ethinic group spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, that has for many years claimed the right to nationhood. Indeed under saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, a semi - autonomous Kurdish state was created.

The Iraqi Kurds, who run the semi-autonomous region in the north of the country under the Kurdish Regional Government, have also come under attack from the Islamic State guerillas.

Turkey had been widely criticized for not doing enough to assist in the fight against ISIS. In fact, we have published here a lot of evidence to suggest that Ankara was cooperating with the group by ensuring funds through illegal oil trades and acting as a conduit for US supplied weapons. Turkey's links with ISIS are so undeniable and well documented now, even mainstream media have had to start reporting this news ...